MONTREAL - A Quebec judge granted a stay of execution Thursday for federal long-gun registry data after the province's Liberal government went to court to prevent destruction of the records.

The Quebec Superior Court granted the delay until further motions are argued in a Montreal court next week.

"This means that for the upcoming weekend any people who are acquiring long guns firearms have to register those arms so it is the status quo regarding this topic," said Eric Dufour, Quebec government lawyer.

The court has granted the delay until further motions are argued in court next week.

The legal battle is playing out in Montreal while, in Ottawa, legislation to kill the registry has sailed through the Senate and is set to receive royal assent today.

The feds say they plan to begin the process of deleting the registry data immediately. A federal lawyer told the court that royal assent takes effect at midnight.

Some Quebecers would dearly love to see the registry maintained, including Polytechnique massacre survivor Heidi Rathjen.

"Knowing which guns have to be removed from a potentially dangerous individual is an invaluable tool for police, for prevention it just makes sense. You can't have gun control without having information on who owns them," said Heidi Rathjen.

Some others in Quebec think the delay is pointless, including one man who has been selling rifles for twenty years.

"People can go buy other guns in other province and bring it back in Quebec, there's no border between Quebec and Ontario, we're still in Canada," said Claude Fortin of B&L Sports.

Now Quebec can keep up the fight in court next week to save the information. It wants the data to create its own registry.

It argues that it's unconstitutional for the federal government to destroy the information, if it means thwarting the public policy of another level of government.

The registry battle has been particularly emotional in Quebec, which was the epicentre of the national gun-control movement after the Polytechnique massacre of 1989.

The Quebec government has never accepted the view of registry critics, like the Harper Tories, who call the measure useless in deterring violent crime.